More PMETs are being hired on contracts, according to figures from MOM showing that some 70,000 PMETs were hired on contracts last year, up from 67,000 the year before in 2011. The contract period for PMETs typically runs from 6 months to 1 year.
Ask the Sinkies how many can afford to survive on contract work when they are committed to a 30 year mortgage and a host of family and social commitments that must be paid in cash every month?
Ask the foreigners and none will be against it as they know they are not here for the long haul or their commitments are not like the albatross around the neck of the Sinkies.
These conflicting realities and demands in the lives of the Sinkies are simply brushed off as non issues. No one will bother about it. Sinkies are soft, timid, lazy and it is their fault. Why can’t they be like the foreigners and work on short contract terms?
Now, would the Sinkies know who to blame for the plight and the fix that they are in now? Do they understand that the system is designed against their well being? Would the Sinkies wise up and decide what is good for them and do the necessary to help themselves, to change the system that is loaded against them but in favour of the foreigners and the elite?
The housing mortgage is a 30 year monthly repayment that must be paid every month. The household expenses cannot wait. The children’s schooling and expenses cannot wait. The monthly bills cannot wait. Contract jobs is contrary to the well being of Sinkies when they are faced with continuous barrage of bills and payments and any period out of job and without income is unbearable and crippling to their life style.
The proliferation of contract jobs offered to Sinkies must be regulated and reduced. How can Sinkies live with impermanent and temporary income when the expenditure is continuous? Companies offering contract jobs to Sinkies when the job is permanent in nature is irresponsible and unfit to be good corporate citizens. They are exploiting Sinkies and compromising their livelihood for short term benefits.
There are jobs that are temporary in nature that require short term contracts, fair enough. But there have been many cases exposed where the nature of the job is permanent but only a short term contract is offered that is detrimental to Sinkies with their list of family commitments.
Chua Chin Leng aka redbean
* The writer blogs at http://mysingaporenews.blogspot.com